Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is leading the anti-government protests since long, has announced non-cooperation movement against the government on December 20.
As part of the non-cooperation movement, the biggest opposition instructed its party-men not to appear in court, or not to pay any type of taxes, fees, utility bills and other payments to the government.
Ambia Khatun (pseudonym) is an activist of BNP`s women wing Jatiotabadi Mohila Dal, resided in Nakhalpara area of the capital. Although she distributed leaflets regarding ongoing non-cooperation movement, she paid the electricity, gas and water bills herself.
“I have no other option as I need to pay the bills through smart card since the payment system is prepaid.”
Not only this leader of BNP but all other like-minded organization members have been paying bills regularly.
As a result, the non-cooperation movement of BNP, which has been going on for 5 consecutive days, is in vain.
Several top leaders at various levels of the BNP have said that usually the program of the anti-government movement is finalized after discussing with them, while in the case of the non-cooperation, it was not happened.
Instead, Tarique Rahman, the party`s acting chairman, announced this movement from London on his own. Consequently, like-minded parties were unable to conduct public campaigns in accordance with this program.
Furthermore, it is not possible to avoid paying value-added taxes or utility bills in real life. Since gas, electricity, and water bills are prepaid in many parts of the country, everyone is compelled to pay them even if they don`t want to. The supply of the services will be discontinued if the bills are not priorly paid.
Senior Joint Secretary General of the BNP Ruhul Kabir Rizvi urged officials at all levels of government to refrain from working.
In response to inquiries regarding this movement, Kayser Kamal, BNP’s Law Affairs Secretary, stated that the non-cooperation movement’s agenda has arrived on schedule.
“People join these kinds of movements gradually. Thus, we believe that the movement is being properly announced,” he continued.
Movement has no effect on bill collection!
BNP’s call to individuals from all walks of life -- not to pay their gas, electricity, or water bills as part of the non-cooperation movement -- has no effect on the service providers.
A K M Mahbub Ali, Deputy General Manager of Metro Dhaka Revenue Department-3 of Titas Gas, said that no one responded to BNP’s call.
“Under revenue department-3, Titas Gas Metro Dhaka receives Tk 24 crores each month. The same amount of money arrived once more,” he added.
Md Abdullah Al-Mamun Talukder, Assistant General Manager (MS) of Dhaka Palli Biddut Somitee-1, said, “We are getting electricity bill properly as we received Tk 118 crore this month and the due is 1.04%, that means the payment is normal.”
Mizanur Rahman of WASA Revenue Zone-4 said, “We don`t have any water bill due. The non-cooperation movement of BNP, has no impact even in depositing in banks.”
Reactions
Shairul Kabir Khan, a member of the BNP media cell, declared, “We are not paying any bill in accordance with the decision of the acting chairman. A person can choose whether or not to accept it. It has no effect on the party decision.”
Mohila Dal leader Ambia (pseudonym) said, “We can sustain by not depositing money in our bank accounts. But, if we do not pay bills, life will be unbearable due to outage of the services.”
Amin Bazar resident Kamrun Nahar stated, “After three months, we pay our gas, electricity, and water bills together. The BNP`s demand is unacceptable in my opinion.”
Barrister Kayser Kamal, Secretary General, Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum – wing of lawyers who support BNP – said that the decision to cooperate with the government rests with the people.
“Although I understand that sometimes it is impossible to accomplish everything, we should try to avoid cooperating with the government as much as we can,” he added.
Kayser added, the Awami League is acting in accordance with its own will, he continued, and if the people accept this, they will ultimately suffer.
